The Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro are among the best smartphones ever released by Google. They pack competent internals, amazing cameras, and all-day battery life. However, their charging speeds leave a lot to desire. While phones from Xiaomi, Oppo, and Realme can charge at ridiculous speeds of 240W, the Pixel 7 series can reach paltry speeds of up to 23W. Sadly, if you were hoping for a radical improvement with the Google Pixel 8 series this year, prepare yourself for disappointment.

Based on information from an internal source at Google, leaker Kamila Wojciechowska in a report for Android Authority, claims the new Pixel phones will see a small 4W boost in their wired battery top-up speeds. The Pixel 7 charges at 20W, while the 7 Pro reaches a peak speed of 23W. So, the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro will allegedly support charging at 24W and 27W, respectively.

This modest bump is unlikely to have any tangible real-world benefits. If you were unhappy with the slow charging times of your current Pixel phone, the upcoming 2023 flagship Pixels won't impress you either. Worse, wireless charging support will apparently remain unchanged at 20W.

The report also claims the Pixel 8 lineup will get a small boost in battery capacity. While the Pixel 8 could use a 4,485mAh cell vs. the Pixel 7's 4,270mAh battery, the larger Pixel 8 Pro will get a more modest bump of 24mAh to 4,950mAh.

On the connectivity front, the Pixel 8 series might use Broadcom's flagship BCM4398 chip that supports Wi-Fi 7. This latest wireless networking standard promises significantly improved speed, reliability, and lower latencies, though it is yet to be finalized.

While Google might use a Wi-Fi 7-capable chip on the Pixel 8, it may not officially support the protocol. Samsung already does something similar with the Galaxy S23 Ultra, which supports Wi-Fi 6E, despite the chip inside being Wi-Fi 7 compatible.

Lastly, for another year, Google plans to keep Ultra-Wideband connectivity exclusive to the Pro model. There are reports of Google working on its own Tile-like tracker, so it is puzzling to see the company allegedly omitting UWB support from the regular Pixel 8. Ultra-Wideband helps locate item trackers easily and enables new use cases, like seamless transfer of music playback from your phone to your Pixel Tablet.

While slow charging speeds on the Pixel 8 could be a bummer, Google could potentially make up for it with a more power-efficient Tensor G3 that could help the phones to last longer.